$100 in 1914 is worth $137 in 1935,
because prices increased 37.0% over that period, an average of
1.51% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$137
in 1935
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
37.0%
Average inflation rate
1.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$137
Price difference ($100 base)
$37.00
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1935
13.7
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
$100 in 1914 → 1935
$137
$100 in 1935 → 1914
$72.99
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1935
Between 1914 and 1935, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 37.0%, which works out to an average of
1.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.73 buys in 1935: the 1914 dollar
lost 27.0% of its purchasing power over
these 21 years.
Consumer prices barely moved in 1914, rising just 1.0% for the year, even as
the country’s financial plumbing was rebuilt from the ground up. The Federal
Reserve Banks, created by the Federal Reserve Act signed the previous
December, opened their doors on November 16, giving the U.S. a central bank
for the first time since the 1830s. Weeks earlier, the outbreak of war in
Europe had spooked the New York Stock Exchange into closing for more than
four months, the longest shutdown in its history, as officials worried
European investors would dump American securities for gold. Domestically, the
bigger story was labor: Henry Ford’s decision to pay factory workers $5 a
day, announced in January, roughly doubled wages on his assembly lines and
pushed other manufacturers to raise pay just to keep workers from leaving. A
first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, a price that had held since 1885 and
would keep holding for three more years, even as the war reshaping Europe
began pulling the American economy toward the sustained wartime inflation of
1917.
Every 1914 amount converts to 1935 at the same ratio, 1.37: $1,000 becomes
$1,370, and $10,000 becomes $13,700.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1935
$1.00
$1.37
$5.00
$6.85
$10.00
$13.70
$20.00
$27.40
$50.00
$68.50
$100
$137
$500
$685
$1,000
$1,370
$5,000
$6,850
$10,000
$13,700
$100,000
$137,000
$1,000,000
$1,370,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1935
Between 1914 and 1935, apparel rose the most, up 38.7%, while food rose the least, up 21.6%, against 37.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1935, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.51%
$137
Apparel
1.57%
$139
Food
0.93%
$122
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1914: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1914 to 1935
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1930s (3.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1935 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$167
1930–1935
-3.88%
-18.0%
$137
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $171 by
1924, on its way to $137 in 1935; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1935, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $137; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1935 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.2% in 1935, a second straight annual increase after
1934’s turnaround, though the CPI still sat well below its
1929 peak and the recovery remained uneven and incomplete.
The year’s biggest legislative achievements aimed at making that unevenness
less punishing. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14,
creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance funded by a new
payroll tax, the first federal safety net of its kind in U.S. history. That
spring, the Works Progress Administration had already begun putting millions
of unemployed Americans to work on public construction, arts, and
infrastructure projects, becoming the largest jobs program of the New Deal.
Congress added labor protections to the mix that July with the National
Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing most private-sector workers the right to
organize and bargain collectively. The human cost of the Dust Bowl was still
mounting on the Plains: the storm known as Black Sunday hit on April 14,
one of the worst of the decade, and continued drought kept driving farm
families off land that could no longer support them. Consumer prices ended
the year 38.4% above their 1913 level. First-class postage
held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1935: $100 is worth $137 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1935/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1935. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1935/